By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – The Ohio Valley Conference celebrated academic excellence on Friday as the league announced its annual OVC Academic Medal of Honor winners. When the final tally was revealed, Tennessee Tech had 34 student-athletes receive the award for the 2024-25 academic year.
The OVC Academic Medal of Honor is given annually to the student-athletes who achieve the highest grade point average in a conference-sponsored sport. Every Academic Medal of Honor recipient for the 2024-25 academic year achieved a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
For the Golden Eagles, women's soccer and women's track and field had the most winners with seven, while softball had six, and women's basketball and men's tennis collected four each.
The Tech recipients included:
BASEBALL (2) – Riley Black, Emery Wright;
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL (4) – Keeley Carter, Angelika Girgenson, Reghan Grimes, Chloe Larry;
BEACH VOLLEYBALL (2) – Jordan Karlen, McKenna Young;
MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY (1) – Carter Bradford;
WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY (3) – Megan Forstner*, Makaleigh Jessee*, Zaely Tilt*;
WOMEN'S GOLF (1) – Reagan Stuke;
WOMEN'S SOCCER (7) – Anna Baker, Maggie Conrad, Melina Hamm, Ebba Melin, Sam Schroeffel, Reagan Smiley, Katie Toney;
SOFTBALL (6) – Olivia Evans, Hannah Lange, Julie Martin, Kyleigh Pitzer, Brooklyn Stewart, Emily York;
MEN'S TENNIS (4) – Alex Alvarez, Lucas Bitzer, Murilo Burckhardt, Lukas Krause;
WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD (7) – Carolina Bannach, Alexis Dotson, Megan Forstner*, Angela Hoover, Makaleigh Jessee*, Aliyah Kennedy, Zaely Tilt*;
VOLLEYBALL (2) – Jordan Karlen*, and McKenna Young*.
The asterisks denote winners in multiple sports.
Across the entire OVC, 349 student-athletes earned the award – the second-most in conference history and trailing only the 356 tally achieved in 2020-21. The total was 37 honorees higher than a year ago. Sixty student-athletes were honorees for multiple sports and counted just once in the overall list. Women's soccer had the most winners across the membership with 65, followed by women's track and field (64) and softball (40).
In the past five years, more than 1,590 student-athletes have earned the OVC Academic Medal of Honor.
The OVC will announce the Commissioner's Honor Roll on Monday and the Overall/Team Academic Award winners on Tuesday.
Photo | TTU Photo Services
